Red River
by crazyiscool
Summary: This is just a written version of the story... thought it might be interesting... not sure if it breaks rules... it doesn't does it? Um... read and comment if your interested... just testing what I can do to be honest...
1. Prologue

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Disclaimer: I do not own Anatolia/ Red River Story... This is a written version of the story... It is to test my skills and also to see what a written version could be like. Open to criticism. I own NOTHING of this, nothing at all... not even an action! Man this is weird...

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Prologue

February 1995 is a date that I remember even now many years past, or before, however you look at it. The reason I remember this date so well is because it is the date of my first kiss, a kiss with a boy I had liked for a while, under a tree in a field in Japan, picturesque for anyone who had been brought up in Tokyo city as I had. But this isn't the only reason I remember it, though it is the reason I would like to remember it for, this was the year and month that began the adventure of my life, something that would _change_my life and apparently alter the course of history… not that I knew it then. To explain properly I will have to take you back to that time. The time under the tree with Satoshi Himuro, my 3 year long class-mate, when my name was still Yuri Suzuki and I was but 15 years of age.

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Comments are welcome, slate it if you want... If you want me to do Chapter one please tell and I will... If not tell me and I'll stop :P_


	2. Chapter 1

**Discalimer: I DO NOT OWN ANATOLIA/RED RIVER STORY!!! IN FACT I OWN NOTHING THAT IS WRITTEN HERE... YAY!**

**Read if you like... if you think it breaks any rules please tell... I dislike breaking rules on these things... consequences suck **

Himuro pulled away from me almost as soon as his lips tenderly touched mine, a blush forming across his face as he looked away from me, my mind reeled with shock, had I done something wrong? Did he not like me?

"Himuro!?" I asked suddenly startled as I stared at his blushing face, he turned towards me for a second, his dark brown eyes revealing his embarrassment momentarily before he turned away once again.

"S…sorry, Yuri. I can't do it today." He put his hand to his face with defeated expression, blushing and frustration mixing into one strange expression on his face as he did so. Even now I find it hard to believe that the strong willed Himuro could ever blush or stutter, but he did that day. "Even though I've got so much to say to you… It's too embarrassing after all…" I stood there in shock and vaguely noticed that he was turning completely away and walking off at a fast pace, he was leaving and yet I didn't mind… why? That question still bugs me now, I should have said something to him but I didn't because I was young, naïve and I was too scared, just like him. "See you at school…"

I stood there in shock and covered my mouth with my hands slowly as I processed what had just happened in the last 5 minutes of my life. _Kiss… I finally kissed him? I finally kissed Himuro!? … We've been friends in the same class for three years… when did he start to like me… Himuro!! _I mentally went through my log of thoughts and then exuberant joy ran through my mind and I jumped into the air in celebration, finally I had kissed Himuro, and it was my first kiss too! I spent possibly another 5 or 10 minutes celebrating my small victory before wandering home in a daze, my fingers pressed to my lips and my lips curved into a smile that felt like my face was splitting in half from its wideness.

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Once I had reached the house Onee-chan pulled me into her room to drag all of the juicy details out of me, she always did this whenever I met up with Himuro out of school, and predictably Eimi, my younger sister, was waiting in Onee-chan's room, as always, and they started the interrogation. Somewhere in the middle of the questions I blurted out that Himuro had kissed me and my sisters set up a loud chorus in unison "A kiss!? You finally did it!" I blushed and hurriedly looked around myself and motioned towards the floor, below which my parents were somewhere in the house.

"Onee-chan, Eimi…" I begged to them quietly "Shhhh! Don't say that so loud!" My parents were strict and would not have any of their daughters, especially one only 15 years of age, going around kissing boys so I understandably didn't want them to hear the subject that I and my sisters had just breached upon.

"It'll be fine! Papa and Mama can't hear us from downstairs…" Eimi assured me but I wasn't convinced, I was nervous about the subject anyway and having them two shouting it out made me even more so. Onee-chan gave me a knowing look that somehow annoyed me, like she had been expecting it all along and also knew that I was just trying to cover up my embarrassment over the whole subject.

"Himuro Satoshi, eh? So he came to like you after all? I thought you said you were just friends…" Ah, so that was what she was getting at; previously I had denied my affections for Himuro by claiming that we were just friends, that was all I saw him as, but now that my sister had been revealed the truth she was brimming with her pleasure over the fact that she had been correct, I had indeed liked Himuro more than a friend and I had lied to her over the subject. Eimi looked at me with wide, innocent and curious eyes as she asked me a question that I was not overly sure how to answer.

"Hey… Yu-Chan, what did the kiss feel like?" Her face lit up as she contemplated it, it was the dream of all young girls to have their first kiss with their crush and she was no different in this matter. I looked at her and felt a sudden flush of embarrassment and happiness over this small matter, I put my hands together and closed my eyes, resting my face on my hands as I thought back to the shocking but pleasing moment, a blush forming readily on my pale face.

"It's hard to explain this to a child," I felt a superiority over my younger sister at this point that pleased me greatly and carried on. "But his lips tenderly touched mine…" Eimi's next question shocked me and took away the belief that she was innocent and naive at once.

"Ooh! Love! Did he stick his tongue in?"

"That's called a deep kiss! Yuri's just a newbie!" Of course my elder sister would know... How could she not? She was quite a bit older than me so of course she would have already had kissed someone. My reaction was still just as predictable, I realize now, as she had hoped it would be. "Onee-chan!" I screamed, embarrassment covering my face once again. But we all stopped our shouting as the loud and gruff voice of our father echoed through the house.

"Marie, Yuri, Eimi! Food's ready! Come on down!" We all breathed a sigh of relief, they hadn't heard... it was only dinner. We stormed down stairs to the dining room in which father was already sitting himself down at the over-laden table and mother was still standing up, wearing her apron, holding a tray on which balanced a set of steaming plates, one of which she was placing on the table in front of father. Our eyes lit up in surprise and gratitude as we chorused our exclamations of 'wow' and 'What a feast!' Mother smiled at us, her gaze lingering on me for longer than the others and then explained the cause for such celebratory procedures.

"It's to celebrate Yuri passing her high school entrance exams." She retained her beaming gaze on me once again. "Thank you for puttingall your effort into getting into the school of your choice." She praised me and it made me smile back at her though I felt slightly guilty, like most of the students my age it wasn't only for my family that I had revised so hard, it was to be in the same school as my friends and most importantly Himuro, not that I would ever tell them that.

"Mama, we already have one thing to celebrate, her first ki-" Eimi was going to blow it so I quickly covered her mouth and grinned sheepishly at my parents, it was better if they didn't know and Eimi was too young to understand that obviously. "Eimi!" I screamed her name to cover up both my embarrassment and the words that would have tumbled out of her mouth; it also helped me warn her off from trying to repeat it. My father looked up curious as he puffed on his pipe, his thick beard and eye-brows quirking up almost comically as if he'd heard something amusing.

"What was that?"

"N... nothing, papa..." Was what I managed to stuttered in reply to his curious question, it was the worst answer but it was better than the truth would have been. Onee-chan grinned at me from where she was standing, watching over the disaster that was occurring in front of her for her sister. I recognized that twinkle in her eyes and instinctively knew nothing good would result from it, my suspicions were confirmed as she opened her mouth and spoke.

"Hey Yuri, if these good things keep happening, a meteorite might appear and crush you!" Onee-chan appeared to take delight in this statement, as if the idea was almost amusing for her and this riled my temper.

"Marie-chan, you're terrible!" Calling your older siblings without honorifics in Japan is deemed insulting and her statement earlier had angered me but I still felt guilty having said it afterwards, I deeply respected my intelligent older sister. But still, as I ate dinner, no bad thoughts could penetrate my mind, I was floating on a cloud of happiness... _But, really... now I'm free from all that studying... and Himuro...heeehee! Even if one or two bad things happened now, I'd have nothing to fear!_ Dinner had been rowdy, as usual, me and my sisters playing around and throwing jokes and insults at each other, my mother trying to restore peace and constantly congratulating me, Father was a good observer and just ate his food until he looked up as I started clearing up the plates and looked at mother.

"Is the whiskey and water ready?" He asked mother and she nodded her reply.

"Yeah, it's in the kitchen." My ears perked up, I was happy to be helpful today, usually I wished other people would help out ma and papa, but today I was in a good mood.

"Oh, I'll go and get it." I rushed into the kitchen and spotted the tray on the worktop, on it was a bottle of whiskey, ice, an empty cup and a jug of water, I picked it up carefully, not willing to let the tray shake lest I drop any of the objects balanced on top of it. As I began to carry it into the dining room Onee-Chan's voice called to me.

"Yu-chan, bring some juice too." I turned around shocked.

"Are you sure!?"

I must have tripped or something because the water flew out of the jug towards me and then landed neatly back in the jug so fast that I wasn't sure I'd actually seen the movement. I stood in the same place and stared at the jug for what must have been a while as if I expected it to start doing party tricks or something. Ma's voice quickly broke me out of my revere though,

"Yuri, what are you doing? Hurry up and come here!"

"Oh, ok!" I nodded and set off towards the door and as I walked unbidden thoughts rushed to my head. _Just now... did the water just fly out of there?_

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And even though it was impossible I couldn't stop thinking about it through the first class at school the next day. _What happened last night must have been my imagination... The water couldn't have just risen up like that all by itself... _But once again my strange thoughts were distracted by something, or someone. As I walked down the hall to my morning duties and day dreamed a hand landed on my shoulder and caused me to turn around, to face Himuro. His handsome face was shining with a large grin and his expression changed constantly as he talked.

"Yo! Yuri, you're slow. We're doing the daily duties today. Sensei should be giving out the graduation schedules." I smiled as I looked at him and carried on walking.

"Oh, Himuro... Good Morn-" I blushed as I remembered the last time we had met and to my surprise on his face was a similar blush. "-ing..." Himuro lifted his hand off my shoulder and looked uncomfortable as we stood blushing at each other in the middle of the hall. It was almost worth my own embarrassment to see and hear Himuro stutter like that.

"I... I'm sorry about yesterday..." I hid partially behind my school bag and blushed heavily at him.

"N... No, it's all my fault..."

"I... I'll give out the prints myself..."

"No, I'll help too." We stood there like idiots for a while and I immediately regretted the offer of help, why did I say that? It would only make things more awkward..._I'm such an idiot... He startled me and I must've given him a weird look... now he's gotten all worried... _

In the preparation room I kept as far away from Himuro as possible, it wasn't that I disliked to be near him it was that it was uncomfortable, I could feel myself blushing and my heart beating faster as he got near me and it made me nervous, inexplicably so. Searching for the prints didn't turn out to be easy, we search much of the room before I finally worked up the courage to talk to him.

"Himuro, where are the prints?" I asked, my face blushing as my back faced him, my head turned towards him, trying to ignore the errant strand of black hair that was flopping over my eyes from my fringe.

"Funny…" Himuroscratched the back of his head, his back was also facing mine, avoiding me? And he let out a sigh of exasperation. "The teacher said they'd be in the preparation room." Himuro pointed randomly to near the fish tank facing the window. "Could you try looking over there?" Himurostrolled over to the opposite side of the room and started looking there.

I nodded my head in an affirmative, feeling my pony-tail swish against my neck as my head moved jerkily. "Okay…" I stared after Himuro for a while and then gave up, he wasn't going to look back at me, nor was he going to talk to me anymore it seemed.

_Ugh, I shouldn't be worrying like this…_ I slapped my face with both hands, scrunching up my eyes at the same time, confusing filling my mind as I thought of the absurdity of me being worried about Himuro's presence in the room. _How many times have the two of us been alone together already? _Is started shifting papers next to the fish tank in an effort to find the elusive prints and muttered to myself quietly as I worked, 'I better find it quickly...' I couldn't stand the silence that me and Himuro had uncomfortably immersed ourselves into and worked to try and find a way out of it and back into the normal routine of our lives. "If only sensei had put the prints somewhere easy to find…" I didn't notice the water bubbling in the fish tank, almost like someone was trapped at the bottom, their vital breath bubbling to the surface.

Himuro was searching through the bookshelf, back to me, hands pulling out folders and books and replacing them almost as soon as he had removed them. He refused to turn to lookat me whilst he answered, almost too distant for me to comprehend. "That's true…" This time I heard the bubbling of the tank, but I thought it was just the pipe pumping clean, filtered water through the system and back into the flow of the tank, I ignored it and turned sharply, my ponytail slapping into my face as I turned away from the tank and towards Himuro, breath exhaling sharply in frustration at both Himuro's attitude and the elusive prints.

"Geez! Hey Himuro, let's go ask sensei again where the prints are…" with my back turned I didn't see the bejeweled hands rising through the water in the tank, didn't see those tanned, long fingered, graceful hands burst out of the water, reaching towards me, not until I heard the splashes of the water as it hit the water after sliding quickly and suddenly off the hands. I turned around, my heart beating errantly as I registered the danger approaching me in the form of the hands reaching towards me out of the fish tank. "Huh?" The arms seemed to have noticed that I had seen them and burst even quicker out of the water, water spilling out over the sides of the fish tank as the arms elongated and stretched towards me, hands covering my mouth just as I'd started to scream. The arms tried to pull me back towards the tank as if to pull me in when I started to fight back, my arms flew in all directions as I tried to propel myself away from the pulling arms and mouth screamed "No!" Hoping to gain Himuro's attention and help in this terrifying situation. Part of the way through my pointless waving of arms my elbow hit the fish tank knocking it off balance on the work top it was positioned on.

"Yuri!" Himuro shouted, finally turning towards me, his face etched with worry because of my previous yelling and screaming. It was then that the fish tank toppled, falling off the work top with the exotic, coral-reef fish spilling out over the edge as it crashed to the floor, the hands disappearing the moment that Himuro turned to look at me. Suddenly released I rushed towards Himuro, one hand reaching towards him for comfort and the other covering my throat, somehow thinking that that would help sooth the pain that was now residing in it after nearly being strangled by those grabbing arms.

"Himuro! There're hands in the fish tank…!!" I reached towards him as he backed off, shock and worry now visible across him face.

"What are you talking about?" I spun around to the place where the fish tank had been, not yet registering that it was smashed on the ground with no evidence of the hands left in it, finger pointing towards my so called evidence to my terrifying experience, he must have thought I was mad.

"Look over there!!" I stopped, one hand still clasping his arm, strangely his hand was also clasping my arm, not that I noticed that until later, as I viewed the wreck of the fish tank, the exotic fish flapping about pointlessly in the puddles on the floor, obviously starved for oxygen and dying piteously in the open air, all of it was my fault. I let go of Himuro's arm quickly and covered my mouth with both hands in shock. _No…_Himuro bent down quickly, in my shock I was unsure as to what he was trying to do.

"Uh… I don't know what happened…" I fretted in the background as Himuro's voice grew more and more worried. "But those tropical fish were pretty important to Yoshida…" One of my hands dropped from mouth, the other stayed their, fingers splayed and my eyes wide open as I watched in wonder at the dying fish, had I done that? Had I imagined it? _This can't be! I'm certain… I'm sure the hands came out of the fish tank…_

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Later at home I related the story to my sisters, both looked at me with unbelieving eyes and concerned faces, was I lying or insane? Eimi was the first one to say the sentence that I had been dreading, possibly more than hearing that they thought I was insane.

"You must have been imagining things, Yu-chan." Eimi muttered this, looking intently into my eyes in a way that was too mature for her young years. I leaped up on the bed, doing an impression of the hands that I had been earlier in the day.

"I'm sure about it! Howe could I have imagined that!? It felt exactly like I was being touched!" This conversation was freaking me out but doing the impression had calmed me a bit, somehow it made it feel more like a game then I knew it was. Eimi looked at me worried for a bit then just stared at me in a mature way.

"Y'know, Yu-chan, you need to use a bit of common sense!" This statement shocked me slightly, it was coming from my younger sister and she was telling me that I needed to use common sense?! She thought I was insane, she must have…

"Uh…" was all I managed to say though in reply to this statement. I leant back as Eimi prodded her finger in my direction, it was getting worryingly close to my eyes and I didn't feel like going blind just yet. Then Eimi started announcing absurdities with a serious look across her face.

"Isn't that right?" She lost me with that first sentence. "You didn't realize it, but all that studying for your tests must have shot your nerves." So she did think that I was insane after all, that hurt a bit but what could I do? No one in their right mind would believe that grabbing, jeweled hands had come out of a tropical fish tank at school. Onee-chan came through the bathroom door in a night dress and head turban, obviously just from the bath, rubbing her face with the edge of the towel wrapped around her hair.

"Yuri, the bath is free now. You're the last one, so hurry up and take it." I worried slightly about this bath, all of the incidents so far had been around water, so understandably the idea of getting into a tub full of water worried me no end. Would the hands come back? Slowly I nodded, gulped and walked into the bathroom like I was facing my death sentence instead of a nice warm bath to clean me off.

Lying in the bath I thought through the incident that had happened earlier on in the day, one hand dangling over the edge of the bath as I stared up at the ceiling pointlessly. …_I guess it's true… thinking over it calmly, it's not possible that all that stuff could have happened…_ "If I tell anyone else about the hands coming out of the fish tank, they'd never believe me…" I thought out loud as my head started to spin from the hot air, my mind went strangely foggy as I thought through this, I vaguely heard the water gurgling almost as if someone had pulled out the plug and it was forming a miniature whirlpool as it was pulled down the plughole. "Oh no I should stop… I'm getting dizzy…" This was something that happened usually when I was thinking in the bath, I end up being in for too long and getting dizzy, I started to climb out as I usually do. "Yeah… in truth, it was probably all just my mind playing tricks on me…"

I turned as I heard the gurgling of the water louder and saw one of the same bejeweled, tanned hands launch itself out of the water and towards me, a snake-headed broach cuffed around the wrist of the arm that followed the hand. The first hand and arm was followed quickly by another one, now I had one on either side of me, closing in to clasp around me, the hands grabbed me and pulled me down through the water, deeper than it should have been for a bath, pulling me down further still, with no chance of escape as water and bubbles swirled around me in a terrifying darkness.

_Is this some kind of dream!? _**"I've caught you… I've finally caught you my girl!"** The voice boomed around me, shaking my ear drums as it triumphed over my capture, the arms clasping still tighter as they pulled me down deeper and deeper._ Me? You mean **me**!? _My eyes widen in shock that someone could be hunting me down specifically, what was so special about me? It turned out that the feeling of drowning had been in my mind as I opened my eyes properly and saw that my face was struggling just above the water, my hands grasping at the surface as I tried to pull myself up. _I'm being pulled in! _My hands grasped still and reached towards the tiled edge of the bath next to the wall where two plant pots stood and pulled them onto the floor along with a load of shampoo bottles. The crashing resounded around the room and seemed to stop the pulling of the hands as they disappeared and my sisters rushed into the bathroom, just as I was pulling myself up against the edge of the bath.

"Yuri, what's wrong?!"

"What're you doing!? Were you drowning in the bath!?" But I couldn't think straight, I couldn't answer them, all I did was cough and my mind wondered in its newest discovery. _So I wasn't imagining things… _**I've finally caught you, my girl!** That echoing statement rushed through my mind chilling me as I coughed on the floor of the bathroom, having been pulled out by my older sister and been wrapped in a warm towel. _Is there someone out to try and get me? _The idea still made me wonder though, I wasn't anything or anybody important. _Why!? WHY ME!? Up till now… up till now, everything's been connected to water… Does that mean I should stay away from water? _

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I stuck to the decision not to get close to water for weeks, I even turned down Himuro to dates which involved water, a trip to the beach at Yokohoma refused, a date at the heated pool… I felt guilty and upset that I was missing out on these opportunities to get close to Himuroand that I was upsetting him but I couldn't help it… I wasn't going near water and that was that. I even skipped school when it was raining. _Mom, Himuro, everyone, I'm sorry… But if I stay away from water than nothing will happen to me… _I was walking home from school when I was thinking this, the pure, fluffy white snow falling around me, deep in my thoughts when I heard Himuro call angrily behind me.

"Hey, Yuri! Get your act together! You still haven't given me an excuse for turning me down!" Himuro put his hands on his hits, his face obviously angry, he cast an imposing figure with the snow around him and his thick winter coat on as he faced me, finally confronting me about my irrational behavior. "Even today, the long awaited Saturday, you're rushing to go home?" He was right, that definitely wasn't like me. I turned, surprised.

"Himuro…" I didn't know what to say, that I was afraid that if I went near water hands would fly out at me? No, that wouldn't work, he'd think I was insane for sure. "S…sorry, Himuro." For some reason I stuttered then, nervous at my inescapable position, this was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. Himuro smiled at me, all traces of anger disappeared as he faked thinking about it.

"You can take me to the movies by way of apology." His grin then almost stopped my heart, I realized then that he'd got what he'd wanted.

"Okay…" _It should be all right, if it's just the cinema… I don't have to worry about the snow turning into rain…_I looked up at the snow falling softly down, one flake landing on my cheek and melting almost immediately.

The movie was actually better than I thought it would have been, Himuro and I walked through the streets and into a park on the way home, the snow had stopped and was melting into small puddles which I carelessly ignored, what could a small puddle do to me after all?

"I knew you'd enjoy that, Yuri." Himuro announced, his face a big grin at the fact that he'd guessed my movie preferences correctly. I looked at him a bit surprised, so he had done this for me after all. I grinned, nodding my head as I grasped the shoulder strap of my backpack.

"Yeah, and the sky cleared up, too! I'm glad I came!" I pushed back my fringe, it was getting a bit long and looked up towards the now clear sky. _Honestly… I was worrying a little too much. I f I don't relax a bit, it'll be like giving up before anything happens. _Out of the corner of my eye I saw Himuro blush slightly but I didn't give it much care except for a small sense of satisfaction that Himuro did indeed like me as much as I liked him.

"Yuri, if something is worrying you… Just tell me." Himuro was definitely blushing now as I turned to face him at this sudden announcement, I nearly told him all about the hands in the water then but I couldn't, I just couldn't… Himuro would think I was insane. "I'll definitely protect you."

"Himuro…" I felt my heart go out to him then, he was so kind and caring, even if I wasn't already in love with him I would have fallen in love with him right then and there. I gasped in shock as I felt Himuro pull me towards him, I thudded against his chest, my blush a burning red and looked up at his face only to see that he was also blushing.

"Hey… I mean it." Himuro clasped me tighter to him in a comforting hold against his chest, my face resting against his shoulder. "Are you listening to me?" I nodded slowly against his shoulder.

"Yes… I'm very happy… But I'm fine." And I was, there in his arms I felt like nothing could touch me, I was safe and no one could take me away._ That's right… no matter where I go, there'll always be water around… I really can't let myself lose my mind so easily…_

"Really, Yuri?" Himuro asked, his face still worried and blushing, I felt his arms loosening as he let me go. I felt his warmth disappearing from me as soon as he let me go, cold patches winging themselves to my chest and upper arms that only a second earlier had been warmed by Himuro's arms holding me close. I nodded slowly as Himuro stared at me, awaiting my response.

"Yes… But I'm a bit hungry, Himuro." Himuro turned around suddenly, his face blushing heavily.

"Okay then!" He was avoiding looking at me. "Burgers are on me!"

I walked forward my heart inwardly leapingas I did a small little celebration dance, supposedly at the prospect of getting a free meal. "Yay!" But as I walked through a puddle my celebration stopped, something was grabbing my boot-clad ankle… I looked down and saw the same bejeweled, right hand clasping my ankle, my breath left me in a gasp, fear fed this time as I tried unsuccessfully to pull away, the hand was once again coming from water, from that tiny little puddle formed out of melting snow.

Suddenly the other hand shot up and clasped and my mouth, stifling my screams before they had even reached my throat, both arms wrapping themselves around my body, trapping my legs close together… escape was impossible this time, the hands had made sure of that. I dropped my bag as the arms pulled me through the puddle, under it in a quick movement. I vaguely heard Himuro turn and call out "Yuri, what would you prefer McDonald's or Mos Burger…" Then the shock in his voice as he noticed I was gone. "Yuri?" The thud of my bag as it hit the floor. "Yuri!! Hey, where did you go?!" Himuro's voice was worried but it was fading, just like every other sound that had previously filled my ears.

* * *

My mouth was free but I couldn't call out, the hands dragged at my legs, pulling me down and down. _I'm being dragged in… I'm being dragged in! This is no joke! It's almost the 21st century, how can this be possible!?_ I kicked the arms away but then realized something rather quickly, I had no air, I was in water and my breath escaped from my mouth in a bunch of tight packed bubbles as I attempted to hold it in with my hand. _It hurts…!!_ My chest felt like it was being crushed from the lack of air and my mind rushed with thoughts. _I need to get out, fast!_ I look around at me but there is only water everywhere until a light streams down in a square shape, an escape!

Swimming as strong as you can up to the surface when you're starved of air is not easy but some how I managed it and came up gasping for air in the middle of what looked like a well, steps leadingup to an open area where women held jugs and children hung onto mothers. Their clothing was odd, rough, woven materials in coarse, un-dyed colours, the children wore nothing. Women sat next to wooden bowls holding fruits, sorting them out and sheltering in the shade from the heat that I was suddenly victim to after comingfrom the freezing cold of Tokyo's winter. The women and children stared at me, babbling and backing away, one was screaming in a high pitch voice in a strange language.

" !!"

_Huh…?_ Water dripped off my hair and onto my face but I couldn't care less, they were bubbling the strange, fluent language that was nothing like Japanese but sounded impossibly ancient to my ears.

"  "

"   " _I don't know this language… _A man strode towards me, his hair longer than many men in Japan had it, it was then that I realized their facial features didn't fit those of Japanese people, or Asian people at all, the man started shouting at me and pointing, as if I could understand but his words flew over me meaninglessly as I sunk into my own pit of revelation.

""

"   " Women gasped and backed away, men marched forward, angry and imposing, my mind rushed. _I don't know this place… Where am I?_

* * *

A candle was all that lit up the steps and base of the spring, a cowled figure standing and holding it over his kneeling an cowled mistress, her voice luring, angry and seductive to his ears.

**"Looks like you got away... This is truly disappointing. Just a little more and I could have brought you here..."** The thin, jeweled fingers of the woman hovered over the water of the well, small bubbles floating up to the surface at her fingertips. **"But she is certainly within this kingdom. She should have arrived in one of the other six springs in the city."**The woman looked at her attendant and he nodded slightly.

"Well, lets call for some soldiers. The girl will be before you soon, your Highness." The man bowed his head slightly, his face lit only partially in the candle light, the other masked in shadow from his hood. The woman got up from her crouching position next to the spring and turned towards him slowly pulling her hood down at the same time so as not to muss her hair, it was piled carefully above her head a gold tiara holding it into position with a gold chain holding a red ruby in a tear-drop shape dangling at the centre of her brow.

**"Naturally. I summoned that girl for a reason. No matter what happens, her blood is needed..."** The woman turned fully revealing a neck full of light beaded and golden necklaces and a large chest, with which she somehow managed to walk up straight with a regal manner, her face was rather beautiful if not for the strict look that now crossed it, aging it and making it cold.

* * *

I ran, seeing only other sights that both astounded and scared me. A massive, yellow-stone wall surrounded the city in which I was running, stone buildings vaguely resembling temples that I had seen in books filled the spaces, people wearing plain, un-dyed clothes walked around, their feet bare or wearing sandals of a sort. There was no concrete, no tarmac, just stone and wood, simple materials that weren't really used in Japan anymore, people preferring the use of glass and concrete now. The road was mud, it didn't exist, it was a red dirt that had been pressed into an almost flat surface by countless feet stamping along it, every now and then there were tracks in it that looked like long lines, bikes? Carts? _This isn't Japan..._ _This isn't my city! _I realised rather belatedly, my thoughts suddenly skipping to another line. _Where's Himuro!? _He should be here, he was standing with me when I got pulled through the water, surely he should have been too? I noticed a set of steps up to the top of the wall that surrounded the city. _What would he tell me to do?_ I ran up the steps, tripping once but somehow managing to reach the top uneventfully. _Where the hell is this place!? _I was running along the top of the wall now, looking down as I did so, I stopped as the sight that faced me awed me. I stood leaning against the wall, the wall I had now realised where battlements, and stared out at the scene open eyed.

"Wh..." I was looking out across a sprawling city across a vast landscape, the ground was a red brown, hills lining the view and the wall extended up one of them, falling short of the others but still containing a vast area of land, houses clumped together in groups big buildings mingling with the smaller ones. What looked like separate areas where contained in their own walls, their buildings bigger than others and their placement was always high up, where everyone could see them. I suddenly felt small, insignificant and I also realised at that time that I was definitely not anywhere that was even like Japan, it was more like I was in an African country, somewhere behind the times without technology. There was another thing that shocked me, no factories, traffic or the general city noise that I knew, sure I heard voices but there was an awful lot less than there was in Tokyo. "Where am I!? Where is this place!?"

I now know that this place is Hattusa, Capital of the Hittite Empire in the 14th Century BC. In the 20th Century this place is known as Central Anatolia in Turkey.

* * *

Um, finito...

Right, if you like this tell, if hate... tell and just don't be too mean ok?

ta lovies.

* * *

1995 February, Japan, Tokyo


	3. Chapter 3

**Don't own anything in this, I just sort of put it all down into words... this took forever to do...

* * *

**

Chapter 2.1

I lent my hands against a rampart, my body shaking as I lent forward to support my weight partially on it. I couldn't believe my eyes, this wasn't possible, wasn't even improbable, it was like a different world to my own and it scared me… it was so far away from what I knew. I put a hand to my head, resting it so that it brushed through my hair that was currently being blown about by a steep wind that came with the height of the defensive walls.

"…No way… this is all just a bad dream… yeah, that's it… it's just a bad dream…" I whispered this sentence, saying it as though saying it would make it true, as if I'd wake up with those words. I shut my eyes desperately wishing that when I opened them it would be to the sight of my familiar bed room and my family. "When I open my eyes, everything will be back to…" I opened my eyes suddenly as if hesitation would make this prayer fail "…normal…" It was still the same sight. _A distant horizon, a carpet of greenery… a red-brown city surrounded by ramparts…!!_ My hands clasped together on the rampart started to shake uncontrollably, this couldn't be happening… it just wasn't possible. My legs gave way underneath me, suddenly I lost all ability to stand, to hold myself up and I collapsed onto my knees, they hit the hard, sun-baked stone painfully but I didn't care.

"What happened…? I was… on a date with Himuro… we'd just watched a movie, and were walking in the park… how did this happen?" It just didn't make sense, things like that weren't possible… but I was soon snapped out of my mystified daze, I heard the heavy thudding of leather soles against stone and heard the angry shouting behind me.

" !"

" !!"

I climbed to my feet quickly, head whipping around to look at them, my breath puffed as I saw who was chasing me; it was men wearing cloth tunics, cloth head bands and long leather sandals up to their knees. What scared me the most was the fact that they were all holding long spears and in their belts they held either swords or knives, I couldn't tell the difference. "Soldiers?!" I hastened to run. _Where is this place? I have no idea what's going on… but I get the idea I should run away… _more soldiers came along and started chasing after me shouting after me in a language I didn't know existed let alone understand. _That voice I heard when I got sucked into the water…the voice felt as cold as ice… **"I've caught you, my girl!"** I don't understand, but I'd better run away! _People crowded the rooftops to watch as I was chased through streets and alleyways, not understanding where I was going; only knowing that I needed to run from these soldiers that were chasing me so ferociously. I was getting tired by now and these men were trained soldiers, fit, and had a much longer stamina than I did; I stood no chance in the long run. But I'd gotten a head start and now as I was through a street they were probably a metre behind me, not much but enough. I ran hurriedly aware that I was getting myself lost. _But even so, where should I run to!? These brick-red clay walls are like a maze… I don't know where I'm running! _As I thought that I saw a group of soldiers arriving around the corner in front of me, I quickly turned around to look, they were behind me as well… only one choice, the alleyway next to me to my left, I spun around and dashed down the alleyway, sort of childishly hoping that the soldiers would all bump into each other, no such luck. as soon as I dashed into the alleyway I realized I was in a garden-like area, I leapt through the bushes and stopped suddenly when I noticed a cloaked figure, head covered, standing underneath a tree, walls surrounded me, this alleyway had been pretty much a dead end and now I was standing in front of another person, soldiers behind me catching up way too quickly for my liking. That person was tall, tall enough to stop me if I made a run for the only exit I could see. _Damn, there are people this way too! _The person pulled back the material covering their head, commenting about something or another in the same language that, before today's events, I had never heard.

" " I gasped at the exposed sight of the person, it was definitely a male, no one could mistake that face for a woman, the eyes were cool, emotionless as he stared at me, his pale brows furrowed in something, annoyance? Frustration? There was no way to tell without knowing him or the words he was saying, on his head he wore a decorated band, his hair a pale blond and those same steely eyes a amber colour straying closer towards a light brown, strangely his ears were pierced, in both ear was one hoop earring and two other stud earrings, his hair was long, fluttering past his shoulder in a thin lock, whilst it was thicker towards the base of his neck. Around his neck was a set of at least three necklaces, one was like a choker with several beads at the front, another was like coiled bands, whilst the last was one stranded, with tear-drop shaped gems hanging from it at carefully arranged areas, on his arm there was, what seemed like, a leather strand wrapped around his bicep, tied in a knot and beads hanging on each end of the strand. His clothes were relatively plain, a shoulder-less shirt which had a slit down the front, the collar edges patterned with another darker material, he seemed to wear a long skirt on the bottom that had the same pattern around the edges but this had a slit up so that both legs could be seen up to knee height, it all looked to feminine and old to fit in my vision, but there he was standing in that get-up with a cloth wrapped around him, for warmth?, in this heat. On his feet, though, were pretty normal, sandals, just like any other person I had seen in this place that was actually wearing anything on their feet. He spoke again, his voice deep and commanding, a rich and charismatic sound even though I didn't understand what he was saying.

" ?" I couldn't speak, I couldn't understand but I had this strange feeling about this man that I had only just met. _You're not… a soldier, are you…?_ But I snapped out of this thought as I heard the running and shouting behind me, it was the soldiers, they had caught me up and would soon catch me. My thoughts ran wild, _it's the soldiers! What should I do? There's nowhere left to run to!!_ The man frowned at my obvious panic and as the footfalls drew nearer he pulled at my arm and dragged me towards him, my shock betrayed me as I let out a startled "huh!?".

He had pulled me under him in a sweeping motion with his cloth wrap covering us like a tent; his arm was wrapped around my waist whilst the other positioned the cloth. His face came rushing towards mine and I gasped out in surprise. "Wha…" but this exclamation was blocked out as his lips covered my open mouth, much to my surprise and kissed me rather forcefully whilst pushing me back so that I fell to the ground with him lying on top of me, still kissing me. I heard the soldier's rushing around the corner but I couldn't seem to care less with this man kissing me so forcefully, my mind was otherwise occupied. _What…!? I don't even know this guy… this is nothing like Himuro's gentle kiss… this hurts…! _I clenched my hands as the man put his hand through my hair and his tongue in my mouth, wishing to punch him but somehow I felt that that was a bad idea as the soldiers had just rounded the corner and I didn't wish to be caught by them anymore than I wanted to be kissed by this rude stranger. The man seemed to notice my unwillingness or the soldiers and made a disgruntled sound. "Hmm?"

"Hey! A girl came this way." Shouted a first voice, strange, I could understand this time.

"Which way did she run?" Another voice continued after the first ones, they sounded authoritative, were they in charge? The man finally pulled his mouth away from mine and licked his lips, looking up at the soldiers slightly.

"A girl?" He looked confused and then understanding crossed his face momentarily, only to be replaced by arrogance and boredom. "Aah…" I was visibly blushing and panting for air at this point, but the man kept my face, and body, hidden from the soldiers. "Well, I must not have noticed her. When I'm with a woman, no other woman can catch my eye." The man quickly covered my mouth as I started to get the idea of speaking or screaming into my head and all that came out was a muffled "mmmph…" Which in the position I was in, probably only convinced the soldiers that the man was telling the truth, I quickly sneaked a look at the soldiers from behind the man's arm and was surprised by the look of surprise and embarrassment on their faces, they were blushing a deep red.

"It… it's Kail-sama!" One soldier cried out, looking thoroughly embarrassed and like he wanted to run away in shame at any moment.

"K… Kail-sama! Why are you in a place like this?" Another cried out, this one looking both embarrassed and angry at the man, seemingly someone important. The first soldier was looking decidedly uncomfortable but bravely stuttered out his question anyway. "Uh… Um… we seek a girl…" His stuttering recovered a bit as he gained confidence, the man having not replied or dismissed them yet. "We're sure a girl in strange clothes came this way…"

The man started to sit up, my face was still sheltered by his body and it stopped me from looking at the soldiers any further. The man looked angry all of a sudden, and frustrated like talking to them was a great inconvenience to him. "Like I said, I did not see her. I finally reached a high note with the woman whose heart I've won… so don't intrude." Then suddenly a realization ran through, I did understand his words! _His words… I… can understand his words!? _The man carried on staring behind him as I went through my little revelation and the soldiers must have been staying where they were because he suddenly shouted at them. "Get out of my sight!" It didn't occur to me then, that in order to be able to dismiss the soldiers the man must have been important, I was too busy wondering about how I could suddenly understand what they were saying. I vaguely heard the soldiers shouting their reluctant and fearful reply "Y… YES SIR!" The man watched the soldiers go with vague interest and then turned to me as I began to sit up, finally released from both his physical hold and the mental hold of the threat of the soldiers seeing me. He assessed me critically with his sharp, cool eyes.

"You certainly do look strange." He was confident in his speaking; his eyes continued assessing me in a cool way as he spoke, as if looking for some strange reaction. "What country are you from? What did you do to get the Queen's own army chasing after you?" That last sentence shocked me to complete and utter silence. _The Queen's army…!? Then that means… this guy saved me?_ My eyes widened in shock and I felt a droplet of sweat fall from my brow and run down my nose. This was not what I had been expecting. _And also… why are his words suddenly…!?_ I covered my mouth with my fist in shock, a blush rapidly running to my cheeks and ears. _No way… was it because of that kiss? _It seemed ridiculous to me, not possible but that was the only explanation I could think of at that time. The man smirked visibly at my reaction and crept towards me in a predatory motion.

"Perhaps my earlier actions angered you?" He reached a hand out towards my face and I flinched back, I didn't want a replay of what had happened before. "If you're unhappy that I cut it short, I don't mind finishing it. I never leave business unfinished with a woman." I pushed myself backwards using my hands and feet and then pushed myself up and broke into a run back the way I came.

"Hey, wait!" the voice from behind me seemed surprised at my reaction, as if no girl would think of turning down his offer. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I ran, a hand covering my mouth as my mind screamed out to me. _What's with this guy?! I can't trust anyone!!_ I ran through the twisted alleyways again, my mind wandering uselessly, as I got hopelessly lost with a load of soldiers of the Queen's army looking for me. _Why was I brought here!? How is it that I can suddenly understand their language!? I don't understand a single thing! _I ran into an opening, and as soon as I looked around me I knew it had been a bad idea, people filled it, women with baskets full of foods men with bowls and shepherding a few sheep, they all turned to look at me. Women started screaming, men filled their faces with anger and started shouting and soldiers came running.

"Eek! It's that girl who came out of the spring!"

"She came out of the spring!?"

"It's her! Over there!"

The soldiers lunged towards me as if in slow motion, hands reached to grab me on all sides and I knew I was surrounded. _I can't trust anyone!!_ Hands grabbed the neck of my shirt, pulling me back and struggled forward, trying to pull away. "No…" _Save me, mama! Papa!_ Hands pulled me up roughly, uncaring to if I was hurt or not and started to pull me away at a fast motion.

"All right. Let's take her to Her Majesty."

"No…" _Save me, Himuro!_ "Stop!" I cried out, this couldn't be happening, what had I done wrong? Why was I being treated this way? I cried as they pulled my arms up, my knees dangling as they dragged me along. Tears poured down my cheeks as my knees hung slightly above the ground, my feet being roughly dragged along the ground, thankfully they were clothed with boots otherwise they would have been torn and bloodied by now. _Somebody save me! _"Nooo!"

* * *

Somewhere in the Palace.

I can't remember much of being dragged into the basement-like place that then surrounded me, for the pain which was caused by the dragging of my body along by only my wrists and upper arms, was too much and my mind has enclosed off those memories. But I was then tied by my hands, with a rope that was wrapped around a stone column, in a painful way, my head was forced forward onto my chest through this position, I was left there by the soldiers and was then left in silence with the only sound being of the dripping of water from the ceiling to the stone floor. It was a dungeon, I saw, the evidence being the chains dangling from the wall, presumably to hold other people the same way I was being held, with their hands above their head. Once again I was being held up by my hands, and my knees were on the cold, hard stone of the floor. I saw the sun shining brightly and strongly through the plentiful windows bringing the atmosphere of dry air to my face and through the day heating the room to a large heat.

My face heated as the sun grew higher and stronger through the windows, clothed as I was for a Tokyo winter. Sweat beaded on my brow as I overheated, my breath became shallow and short as I struggled to bring in the dry air. The room now smelt of the dry heat of the sun, my mind wandered as I hung kneeling on the dirty ground, _why...? Why do I have to suffer like this? _I heard the soft echo of footsteps outside the door and then the creaking of the door as it was unlatched and pushed open, the voice that followed echoed in my ears as I recognised the cold voice that announced their own arrival by carrying on their own conversation as if no other person was present.

"It was a mistake to let her be seen by the common folk." My eyes snapped open at the sound of the spine-chilling voice that was strangely musical. "I had to put an end to it before the uproar spread too much." I pulled my head up to look at the woman that was speaking, my thoughts churning on the voice. _That voice! It's the one that sucked me in!! _As I turned my head I saw a scantily dressed woman that was possibly taller than any woman I had ever seen before, not hard when your from a nation that is prominently small, she seemed to be wearing a single piece of flower and fruit patterned material about her chest and a long flowing, white material from her waist and to the floor for a skirt, conservative compared to the scantily looking top, she also held another piece of white material over her arms, wrapped around her waist and covered her hands, which was holding it up. Her blond hair was wrapped into one main bun that was on the back of her head, whilst two others were wrapped loosely over her ears, almost like that princess out of star wars (couldn't resist that comment... sorry) she had delicate and rich looking jewels wrapped around her neck on one necklace, whilst her head was decorated by one single, tear-drop jewel hanging from a delicate golden chain that was wrapped around her head, through her hair, this single jewel dangled on her brow whilst her cold, distant and sharp eyes coolly surveyed me, her thin lips quirking up in a grin that looked both malicious and dangerous all the time whilst looking beautiful in her undeniably gorgeous face... sometimes it just wasn't fair, the pretty people were evil.

She smiled at me, the earrings that had been previously unnoticed hung next to her face as beautiful gems cut and fitted together to create a kite shape.

"Welcome to Hattusa." She stated her grin started to grow as my face fell into disbelief and fear, suddenly wondering why I had been brought here, where-ever here was.

"You... You're the one who called me!" Was all I could shout out at this person, she grinned wider as if watching a new toy or a wild animal that she had found unexpectedly intelligent. "Why...?! What do you want with me...!?" I carried on like an idiot, she only grinned at my question and leaned towards me, her index finger resting on my throat, I swallowed loudly at this threatening action and tried to pull myself back, but I was tied up and it was impossible.

"Just stay still. I need your blood." She made a slashing movement with her finger along my throat, smiling manically. "I'll cut like this... right here. Your fleshly flowing red blood is essential." Sweat dripped from my temple, down my nose and past my wide open, shocked eyes as I saw that she meant what she said... she was insane...

"Wha..." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, surely this wasn't possible... surely this was a dream, a trick... it couldn't be real.

"His Majesty the Emperor is already an old man. I want my son, a Prince, to inherit the throne. But my son is the youngest of the Princes. In order to become the Crown Prince, the older Princes will have to die." The woman went on to describe how the Emperor had six Princes in total, his last being her son. "In order to make the death-curse Katashiro (I am to believe that this is 'paper images or dolls traditionally used for transferring the soul's impurities. Here, the Queen is making cursed Katashiro' this is a translation note at the bottom of the translations that I read), I need sacrificial blood." I was too scared to be shocked anymore but it was a hideous idea to me, to kill five people just so that their own child could be the Crown Prince? It was unthinkable to me. "I prayed to the Gods to grant me a sacrifice. I didn't care what country the person was from. I asked for the most worthy sacrifice, and you were the one who was shown to me." I blanked at that, me? A sacrifice? Chosen? God no. And suddenly I found my voice.

"This... this is almost the 21st century! This kind of thing isn't allowed!" And then as an after thought I muttered the question of which I hoped the answer was yes. "This isn't some kind of Candid Camera prank, is it?" The woman narrowed her long lashed, blue eyes at me as if summarising my words.

"21st century... is that where you're from? Well this is the Hittite Empire. I am the Queen of Suppiluliumas, the King of water. There is nothing I cannot do." Her words were foreign to me, the Hittite Empire? Suppiluliumas? And the thing that bothered me the most.

"King of water...?" It couldn't be true; it wasn't possible, what were all these strange titles? The doors burst open suddenly, followed by the heavy thudding of someone running along a corridor of stone and their heavy breathing.

"Your Highness! A message! His Majesty the Emperor is on his way here now!" A servant or messenger cried out either in horror or excitement, I couldn't tell, but the Queen seemed both shocked and angered, as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn't and was now infuriated with herself for letting it happen and with the other person for blaming her.

"Why is His Majesty coming here!?" She demanded of the messenger of the bad news. He bowed hastily and delivered the reason, his face hidden from view, bowed as it was to the floor.

"Perhaps news of the uproar in the city has reached his ears." The Queen glared at the messenger and then looked momentarily towards me.

"I can't let the Emperor know about me placing death curses on his other Princes." I felt a rise of hope in the pit of my stomach.

"The Emperor..."_ Maybe the Emperor can stop the Queen for me!_ The Queen walked behind me and wrapped a piece of cloth around my mouth and forced my mouth open so that it went inside and formed a gag, she then tied the ends up at the back of my head speaking to her servant or messenger all the time.

"It's necessary that this girl's blood must flow. I've got an idea!!" She said suddenly as I struggled and tried to talk against the gag.

"Mmph!!" Footsteps resounded through the room and the clicking and clacking of a wooden staff hitting the floor came with it. A man stepped through the door, his beard long and grey along with his hair, his clothes were dark and long whilst he had a white cloth wrapped around his neck and shoulders and falling to the floor down his back and left shoulder. His clothes were belted at the waist by a leather thong with beads on and in his right hand he held a tall sceptre with a bulbous shaped golden lump on the tip of it.

"Queen. I heard something about a girl appearing from a spring." I noticed that the Queen had inclined herself slightly into a bow at the Emperor's arrival and speech, something I had not expected from her previous superior attitude. "Why is that girl here in the palace?" The Emperor questioned immediately, he was obviously not happy about what had happened and wanted the Queen's answer and subservience after her breach of protocol for not asking his permission first, I supposed, it seemed like a very old fashioned society that I had been placed in. The Queen had discarded her covering wrap when the Emperor had arrived and she now openly kneeled to him in submission as she answered him. I raised my head in the hope that the Emperor would stop her and free me, that hope built in my stomach like a bubble of energy waiting to be released or locked up forever more with her reasoning and his thoughts.

"Have you forgotten, my liege?" It seemed like a weird beginning but she sounded so confident when she said it that the hope in my stomach wilted somewhat. "I am not only a Queen, but I also serve as Priestess of the Great Temple." Uh-oh... this didn't sound good, it seemed that she had come up with a reason for me being here. "The spring is in the jurisdiction of Teshub's blessed temple. It is no coincidence that this girl has come to me." I stared at the Emperor, my eyes willing my thoughts to reach him, _save me...!! Please save me...!! _The Emperor seemed to think over the Queen's words as his brow creased.

"Hmm. So what do you plan to do with the girl?"

"Well, if indeed she came from Teshub... then perhaps returning her will bring prosperity to the Empire." The Queen answered, her words meaning little to me. _Return me...?_ That didn't work with her originally stated plan... did it?

"You mean sacrifice her to Teshub?" Suddenly the meaning to her words struck me, return me meant sacrificing me? They were going to sacrifice me!? "If that is your wish." That was it? He wasn't going to save me? The hope that had built in my stomach and had begun to wilt seemed to diminish completely with his words. "If that is your decision, my Queen, then let it be done." The Emperor finished and the Queen bowed her head again.

"As you wish." She raised her head again and signalled the servant/ messenger with a swish of her finger. "Take the girl to the Great Temple. Then send an announcement to the city that we will perform the ritual tomorrow." _This can't be...!!_ My eyes welled with tears as I heard the decision over my life being made heartlessly, no... I was going to die... I struggled uselessly against the rope and cried, unable to sob because of the gag that filled my mouth, tears ran down my cheeks as they walked away, leaving me with the servant that was to take me to the Great Temple, where-ever that was. _Nobody... is going to save me... A sacrifice!? Death curses!? What the Hell kind of joke is this!? _

* * *

The streets of Hattusa, the day before the sacrificial ceremony.

The small, narrow streets are crowded with people men work at stools and shout conversation at each other whilst women walk the streets and shout up to the other women on the roofs of their houses and in front of their houses, children run around causing havoc and mixing in with the hubbub of noise as the news is spread.

"There's a festival at the Great Temple!"

"That's rare for this time of year, isn't it?"

* * *

The Great Temple, the day of the sacrificial ceremony.

As I waited in the plain room that I had been left in my thoughts ran wild, I had been forcefully washed and then put in a white cloth that was wrapped around me, and I had been gagged all the time except for when I had been fed. _I can't believe this is really happening! _It shocked me no end that a country would sacrifice people and make a festival out of it, it was just wrong, all that the people back home did for religion was give money, light candles and prey there was no killing! I heard a booming voice and the tramp of soldiers coming down the hall towards the room I was held in, my hands tied behind my back.

"Bring out the girl!" Echoed around my head as the announcer cried out for me to be brought into the centre of the temple where all could see me being killed in the name of a God I didn't even know had existed until yesterday. The soldiers barged through the door and dragged me out into the open ground of the temple and dumped me in the centre on my knees, tears spilled down my face and stained the cloth that wrapped around my mouth with its salty water. The crowd cheered at the sight of me being brought out tied and crying into the temple, it was so cruel and unreal._ This is..._ _This is a nightmare! _The announcer spoke again. "Tabarna, please be seated. His Highness Crown Prince Arnuwanda and..." The announcer paused, supposedly for effect and I manage to catch up on my thoughts. _What do I do? At the rate things are going, they're really going to kill me! _"... The third Prince, His Highness Kail Mursili, please be seated." Girls screamed out the third Prince's name as if they would faint or as if they were seeing a rock star. "Kail-sama!" But I caught up on my thoughts and turned my head pointlessly looking for an escape and seeing the large crowd, there was a sheltered area where I supposed the Emperor and his Princes would be seated. _What should I..._ my thoughts trailed off as I saw who the third Prince was, it was the man who had saved, and _kissed_, me from the soldiers when they were chasing me, he was still wearing lots of jewellery but this time he had a piece of cloth around his head in his hair, he was now holding his hand on his chair and talking to his brother next to him whilst a servant knelt holding a bowl out for him to take whatever was in it. "Older brother. How is your health?" _That man!? The third Prince... is that guy? He must be friends with the Queen! _

As I thought this the Queen stepped out into the temple centre with two men, all had cloaks covering their heads, the men were wearing black ones whilst the Queen wore a white one, her top was as it was last time was only covered by one strip of material but this time it was black. She had her arms crossed across her chest as she walked forward and she held a staff in her right hand, on the end of the staff was a golden antlered deer, it's feet attached to the end of the staff and hoops placed one on each leg dangled and jangled. She shook it at me and then spread her arms wide, her face up to sky and her eyes hidden in a dark shadow by her hood, it was an eerie sight, especially when I knew that she was her to announce my sacrifice. "O Great Teshub, God of Gods!" She cried out and two men with black masks with only slits for their eyes, executioner's hoods, grabbed me and pulled at the cloth that was wrapped around my body, this caused it to fall down to just above my chest revealing my shoulders and the upper part of my chest to the crowd watching. "I pray to you for the blessing of the rain and for the fertility of our land. I send to you this untainted virgin." I blushed at the sentence stating my virgin state to the crowd and cried at my pitiful fate, I was going to be killed in a foreign land that my parents had never heard of as a sacrifice and they would never know.

The Queen grinned demonically as she finished her 'prayer' to the God Teshub. "Receive this tribute! Grant my wish!" One of the hooded men hefted an axe above my head, ready to strike down on my neck, tears poured out my eyes and the Prince leant his face onto his hand and swirled his drink absentmindedly, how I detested him that moment, how I wished to see my family once more, how I wished not to die as I was pulled further forward by hands tugging at my upper arms, as I heard the axe swinging through the air towards my neck. _Nooo!! I don't want to die!! _The wind rushing, a gasp of anticipation throughout the temple..._Nooo!! I don't want to die!! _Muffled sobs, the air rushing past the axe... and a clank? A call out of pain? Was it me? I didn't feel any pain...

"Aagh!" It was a male voice, unmuffled... not me, but who? Where was the axe? I could still hear it rushing through the air, a disappointed sigh from the crowd, hushed whispers... what was going on?

The next sound I heard was the shattering of pottery, the sound of the axe thudding into the ground and the crowd in uproar. I looked up and surveyed the scene before me, tears still falling from my eyes as I watched the Queen frozen in shock along with the two hooded men that held me and the third one, hands empty and staying still looking into the distance in shock, I turned my head to look at what the frozen tablo was looking at. It was thin air, suddenly, as if hitting a play button, the Queen came to life, head whipping around to search the people, her face covered in a vision of anger.

"Who... who was that?! How dare you insult Teshub by interfering with the rituals!?" She demanded, all grace lost as she searched frantically for the perpetrator.

The third Prince scrapped his chair back noisily as he stood up, standing tall, grand and charismatic. "That wasn't an insult at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite, mother dearest." I looked up at shock, this was the last person I expected to stop this thing, I mean, and he was in league with the Queen wasn't he? And yet he was saying this as if he had no true love, nor loyalty, to this woman stood in front of him. But all I could think at that time was a very small exclamation, _it's him! _The Queen spun angrily to look at the Prince and shouted out her protest.

"Prince Kail! Where you the one who threw the goblet!?" So that's what happened? That's was the reason that the axe man had dropped the axe... Prince Kail had saved my life once again... It shocked me to see that same Prince striding across the open temple centre towards me, ignoring the questions of the Queen, he was striding purposefully a man on the mission and he didn't blink once. "What do you mean, "Opposite"? It doesn't matter that you are one of the Emperor's sons! Under these circumstances your actions are inexcusable!" The Queen stormed towards him, with the intent, I think, to try and stop him and shout at him face to face. The Prince calmly began to pull at his grey shroud that covered his shoulders and uppers arms and then began striding towards me again; he halted in front of me and crouched so that he was level with my face.

"Hold on, mother dearest. I do not wish to deceive our God so I intervened." He then reached forward and pulled down the gag from my mouth, staring intently into my eyes, murmuring as he pulled down the gag 'Let's see...' I couldn't move out of the shock but still I couldn't stop the exclamation of "Huh!?" come out of my mouth as he muttered and surveyed my face and eyes like that. "Ah." The Prince grinned. "So it **_is _**that girl." In that split second I understood, he had realised that I was the girl that he had saved only yesterday. He turned to the old man that was the Emperor with a completely innocent and straight face. "Dear father, isn't purity a requirement for our offerings to Teshub?" The Emperor seemed to be stirred awake by this question and answered immediately to his son's question.

"Of course." The Prince rubbed a hand down his face in a worried and exasperated manner, his eyes closed as if he was thinking about something hard. Sweat dropped from his brow as he assumed a disgraced and shamed facial expression.

"Then, knowing that the tribute is impure, and keeping quiet... that is also inexcusable, is it not?" It seems I have no choice... I must confess." The Prince seemed to be acting as though he had some hardship to announce... but surely he had nothing he _could _say about me... could he? _Wha... What's he going to say? _New found tears fell from my eyes as I worried whether he was handing me back to them to be killed. But to my shock and embarrassment he grabbed me from behind with one arm locked around my shoulder and chest, his other arm wrapped around my waist, I could feel his tall body pressed against me protectively and could not help but blush with the position; it was unusual I had never been handled this way by a man before. His next statement made me blush further. "I have already made this girl mine once. Unaware that she was a tribute, I stole her chastity."

I blushed heavily and could not help but scream out an embarrassed "Whaaat!?" The Queen looked equally surprised but her anger was paramount to that.

"That's... That's a lie!" She screamed at the Prince.

* * *

**_I just summoned that girl to this country yesterday!_** **It's just not possible... why is he lying and saving her? He couldn't possibly know what I'm up to... could he?**

**

* * *

**

The Prince smirked at the Queen knowingly, she couldn't back that statement up without admitting to have sent for me and then locking me up, which would then lead to questions like why had she brought me to this country in the first place? And why was she so desperate to have me sacrificed?

"And how is it that you can be so sure about that, mother _dearest?"_ Now that time it had definitely sounded like a sarcastic term of endearment, obviously this Prince did not like the Queen as I had previously thought he had. "Surely, even you have not forgotten what we did yesterday in the cool shade of the trees..._hmmm...?_" The Prince asked loud enough for people to hear but not so that it was obvious that they were meant to hear it, he had known that the mention of the kiss would cause of beetroot shade of blush to cover my cheeks. And I did, along with struggling to get out of his arms that were currently causing my feet to be off the ground.

"Th... That was..." It was exactly the way that he wanted me to react; he had wanted me to look uncomfortable, to blush, to struggle and most of all to protest, it just backed up his words. "You forced me to..." The other Prince and the Emperor looked bored now, obviously this wasn't anything different to them but the Prince now thought that I had denied a little too much.

"If you want to keep your neck and your body..." He threatened or warned gently into my left ear, his lips almost touching it, just as I was about to shout out the last part of my protest, it dissolved into a whisper now.

"Kiss..."

"Wouldn't it be better for you to play along?" I mentally ran through my options as though I was talking to myself in my head, _well... I definitely don't want to die, but... I can't let this jerk have more than a kiss!! _I swallowed, it was my pride or my life and for some or no strange reason I couldn't seem to choose which one was more important to me at the time. I tried to tug myself out of his grip but it was too strong, I gritted my teeth in frustration.

"Don't touch me!" I flushed with anger and embarrassment, how did I get in this situation anyway? It was his fault, he kissed me and now he expects me to let him say that he took my virginity and not say anything to protest against it myself? _Even if I did it once with Himuro... that was barely my first kiss._ The Emperor now turned his attention to me with an exasperated look, almost like this had happened too many times for his liking.

"Girl, does the Prince speak truly?" He asked, looking thoroughly uninterested in the matter and more than slightly annoyed that he had to ask a question, the answer, in which, he was not much interested. I gasped, surprised that I would be asked on my version of the events when a Prince had already told them, this was different from what I would have expected from an old-fashioned society. I looked back at the Prince flushed; he didn't say anything he just kept his head staring forward, completely in the belief that what he was doing was right. I hung my head slightly and blushed a deep red, I had decided that my life was more important than my pride, I nodded. The Queen looked at me horrified and shocked, she seemed utterly disbelieving that I would admit to it, that it had happened and to that I understood, it hadn't happened and yet lying and degrading myself would save my life. The Prince smiled and hoisted me onto his shoulder in a fire-mans lift.

"Therefore, I'll take responsibility for rendering her useless as a tribute. I'll take her into my custody."

"Prince Kail! I won't allow this selfishness!" The Queen screamed at the Prince as he started to walk off with me over his shoulder. But the Prince carried on walking off and smiled cheerfully and almost like a child.

"I will make amends to the temple. I will send a hundred virgin cows and goats... that should comply with the usual custom, right, father?"

"Yes..." The Emperor seemed to be resigned to his son's attitude to the whole matter and seemed not to want to argue with him, or his wife.

"Your Majesty!" The Queen seemed to be taken aback by her husband's response to his son and seemed to want more response from him than just the small, peace-wishing answers that he had so far supplied. As the Prince walked by the Emperor his father looked back on his son as he walked through the stone door-way.

"Kail, I don't care that you are a womaniser, but please try to shape up and settle down with a proper Princess." The Prince grinned heartily with his eyes closed and nodded.

"I agree with you, father. There are more beauties in this world than there are stars... how can I decide on just one?" The Prince carried on walking as the world went black before my eyes; I vaguely heard a person mutter "... Well then." But I was unsure as to who was the speaker. I cried at my position, it seemed like I had done a lot of crying this day and that my position in this world was not very good either way. _Am... Am I saved...? And even then, is this where I have been rescued to...? But I don't like this either! I want to go back to Japan!_

* * *

Back in the temple centre.

A man in a black robe follows the Queen back to her Palace, he speaks with her in hushed tones so that no-other can hear what is the subject of their conversation. "Prince Kail's quick hands are widely known. Perhaps, even with that girl..." The man trailed off suggestively and the Queen did not reply, her face was set in a grimace and then she spoke her voice filled with anger and frustration.

"I don't care about that! For my true purpose, the Katashiro, it doesn't matter whether the girl is pure or not. I need that girl's blood flowing from her neck!" The Queen admonished, the man in the dark cloak stopped surprised and then thought for a moment before carrying on to follow the Queen.

"Oh...Then...?" He supplied waiting for a plan wit which he could help his mistress. The Queen's eyes lit up as she thought her plan through, searching for any flaws in her plan, there was none as far as she could see.

"That's it! I'll get to Prince Kail's Palace using the 'Dark Water'!"

* * *

The Prince carried me out of the temple in a fireman's lift, hardly like the gentlemanly figure he obviously pretended to be, he seemed to charm women and yet he treated one like this?! As we reached the steps he must have recognised someone because he called out a name in what seemed like a friendly voice.

"Kikkuri!" I soon recognised the tone as he carried on, he was in charge and he was giving orders. "The ceremony is over. Let's go back to the palace." Obviously the person he was talking to was a servant or slave of some kind and yet it was a friendly voice? It didn't make sense to me. But this man seemed too relaxed when he was carrying a tied up girl over his shoulder coming out of a temple and in broad daylight, I reasoned that there must be something wrong with me and that seemed to fit with the man's reaction.

"Kail-sama!" First he had sounded pleased to see him and then his voice became worried and confused. "What's this!? Who's that girl!?" He seemed annoyed, but surely a servant couldn't ask questions of his master, nor could he get angry with him? It just didn't fit in my image, friendly, yet orderly voice, angry and questioning servant... it just didn't fit. Suddenly I was lifted up and slotted into a basket like carriage which had horses in front of it.

"It was Queen Nakia again, plotting and scheming and up to no good as usual. I spirited this girl away." Now that didn't work, I thought that he'd be on the side of his father's wife, obviously not. The words echoed in my mind _the Queen was up to no good._

"You...you're not friends with the Queen, are you?" I asked, I had to be sure before I told them what I knew what if they were friends with her and then took me to her to be killed? Then I'd be in trouble. The Prince laughed at me shortly, as if disbelieving that anyone would ask him that.

"Friends? The Queen probably thinks I'm the most bothersome person in the world."

My face lit up and I stumbled over my words in my rush to tell them. "…then, then…" The men had climbed into the basket with me, the Prince had his arms either side of me as I had my back to the front, the man next to the Prince was holding the reins of the horses that were now pulling the little chariot along at quite a pace. Whilst the Prince busily untied the rope that bound my hands together. "Take me back!! Take me back to my home!! The Queen brought me here!" I screamed at them over the sound of the horse's hooves hitting the ground at a fast rate. They looked shocked at this, their eyes filled with curiosity.

"She brought you here? Where from?" The Prince asked me, looking at me intently this time, now he was curious.

"Japan!" I hoped to God that they'd heard of Japan but somehow I guessed that they wouldn't, this didn't seem like a place that would have heard of Japan, it seemed ancient, untouched by modern industry and inventions and that worried me. I was right; the look of confusion on his face was obvious.

"Japan?" I felt it was only fair to show that I didn't have a clue where they lived either.

"This is Hattusa, right? Where in the world is that!? I've never heard of it!" it was such a weird name too, and if they hadn't heard of Japan, a main part of the world economics then I knew I was in trouble.

Both men looked rather shocked at my announcement, almost as shocked as I should have been for them to not know what Japan was.

"You must be quite the country bumpkin if you've never heard of the capital of the Hittite empire." The man that seemed to be both servant and friend remarked, he seemed vaguely worried that I had not heard of Hattusa, but I'd let them worry about their pride, I was more worried about how far away from home I was. The Prince seemed to occupy himself noting how I looked.

"Yes. Nor do you seem to be from the Kaska tribe. Or from Kizzuwanda either." These names were foreign to me and they showed on my face as confusion, I was racking my brain, trying to see if I recognised a name but I couldn't, not even one name registered as familiar and my heart sunk as I started to realize that I could be very far from home indeed. "Do you know of the Mitanni Kingdom?" He asked and my heart sunk once again.

"No." He looked confused and then pressed for more names of countries or empires in his mind.

"Then… what about Egypt?" He asked and my eyes lit up.

"Egypt!" Finally a name I recognised, it wasn't too far from Japan not to have heard of it… what was going on? "I know Egypt! Is that near here?" _isn't Egypt in the Middle East? Is that where I am!?_ The Prince frowned and gestured at the chariot we were riding in.

"It's not nearby. Even with this chariot, it's 15 to 16 days away." He seemed puzzled. "But Japan is a city in Egypt?" I paused, my hair was being pushed and pulled at by the wind and the motion of the chariot but I held up a now freed hand.

"No, that's not it…" but the servant/ friend interrupted.

"But… Kail-sama, ever since the last Pharaoh took over, the country's been in a state of disorder, hasn't it? There are probably new towns cropping up…" They weren't even listening to me; they didn't want to listen only muse on their own thoughts.

"That's true. It's all thanks to the current Pharaoh, Tutankhamen." _What!? _That wasn't possible, I recognised that name and it wasn't good, surely this had to be a joke I wanted to check again, to see if the name was right.

"Tutank…hamen?" I asked, this wasn't good, oh so not good.

The Prince grinned, pleased to finally be getting somewhere and also looking somewhat amused at the subject.

"You know of him? He's a boy King even younger than I am." Shit, shit not good. _I've heard about him… if I'm not wrong, I read about him in a book. Tutankhamen! He was a Pharaoh of ancient Egypt! So where I am now… is the Middle East of the past?! _That isn't possible, it physically can't happen, you can't go back in time! My legs startled to shake, my knees started to buckle, the Prince grabbed me and tried to hold me up as I shook.

"Hey, are you alright!? You… what's your name?" He asked it as though he had only just thought of it, like asking if a pet dog had a name. I was still in a panic, my body shaking uncontrollably.

"Yu…Yuri…" the Prince had taken on a strangely gentle air; he looked down at me in a comforting way.

"I see. Well then, Yuri. You said that the Queen had brought you here, right? For what purpose would she do something like that?" He questioned me gently, as if talking to a small frightened child, which I suppose I was then, a young girl lost in a different century, let alone country, to her home and family, surrounded by strangers with a megalomaniac with _a lot_ of power chasing me and wanting to kill me for a death curse. I covered my mouth suddenly remembering what the Queen had told me, what she planned to do, why she needed me, the fate that awaited this man that had saved me and looked after me, though it was for a short time.

"She… she said she wanted her son to take the throne… so she said she would place death curses on the other Princes… and that she needs me for Katashiro…" I trailed off as I finished my explanation of what I knew; the shocked and horrified looks on their faces were enough to reassure me that they would try to stop this. I let my mind spin on and on about the situation I was in. _this is historical Middle East…!? This is absurd…!! I don't believe it…!! Take me back home!!_ My mind screamed at me, why should I believe it, I wanted to go back home, see my family, hug my sisters, kiss my mum and dad, see Himuro, my friends… I want to go home.

We arrived at a large Palace, that seemed empty for it's size and Prince Kail took me to a room and provided me with a blanket shortly before leaving with his servant/ friend, I still couldn't decide what the guy was. I was in the centre of the room on a rug and cried, home was what I wanted and here I was left in a foreign place with a blanket and my saviour gone.

"… This isn't the time to sit and cry. That's not going to change anything. Prince Kail just dumped me in here and then ran off again." I chided myself whilst ruffling up my hair, it felt vaguely like someone patting my head so it comforted me slightly. "I guess I'll just have to manage by myself." I looked around the room I was in, it was obviously a bedroom, what with the bed in the corner along the right wall, there was drapes hanging from the wall, covering the bed slightly a pot near the end of the bed, I supposed it was a chamber pot though the idea disgusted me, a chair and a total of three boxes in different shapes and sizes and in different places dotted around the room, a large square one with a steeped lid like the roof of a house was placed at the end of the bed, another was next to the chair, this one looked like a normal trunk and was the biggest and then the smallest was under the small, open window, this one was a plain square with a square design on it, all furniture was made out a of a dark wood and was decorated with silver and gold panelling, some were painted in bright, rich colours, it was grand. Whilst two mats covered the floor near the bed, obviously so that the owner of the bed didn't get cold feet as soon as sliding out of bed, the stone that covered the floor must be cold in the night and morning.

_But what on earth can I do to get home?_

"It seems like this place doesn't like me too much. There's no way I'll go through that torture a second time…" I mumbled my thoughts out loud until I heard timid knocking on the door to the room. I turned around in surprise and fear, what if the Queen had found me and was coming to take me away? But the door opened gently and a half-naked figure stepped through only wearing a cloth around their waist, earrings and a gold choker. It was Eimi, it had to be! This person was identical. I got up quickly.

"EIMI!?" Tears clouded my eyes as I flung myself at Eimi but as they lifted the tray up above their head they revealed their completely flat chest, it was a boy there was no mistaking that and he looked very surprised and worried.

"What?"

"A boy!?" The boy was definitely looking uncomfortable now.

"Uh…" I blushed a bight red at my previous actions.

"S… sorry! You look like my little sister…" _that's right… there's no way that Eimi could be here…_ the boy also blushed and laughed.

"My name is Tito. Kail-sama ordered me to look after Yuri-sama." That took me by surprise, surely he shouldn't have to use honorifics on me.

"Yuri-sama?" I asked pointing at myself in shock… that didn't seem right. Tito didn't seem to notice my questioning of the honorific's and carried on talking.

"I think this is the first time Kail-sama has brought a woman here. I'm quite happy about it. Do you like flowers? Oh yeah. A meal has been prepared." Tito was now pouring water into what looked like plant pots and grinning happily as he talked, he didn't seem to notice me staring at him and smiling shyly.

"Thank you." Though whether he noticed my gratefulness I didn't know._ He talks nonstop… just like Eimi._ I picked up a flower he gave me a twirled it in my fingers smelling it casually as he talked.

Now Tito was pulling at the bed covers and replacing them with new ones. "Hey… um…. Tito, right? Can I ask you something?" Tito murmured something about 'I'm making your bed…' and then seemed to realise I'd asked him a question. His attention immediately lurched towards me.

"Yes?" he seemed rather eager to here my question, maybe he didn't get to talk to people much? I looked down at my meal that was on the floor on a tray, it seemed to consist of bowls of fruit and bread with water.

"Using Katashiro on people… placing death curses on people by using a human sacrifice… is such a thing really possible?" I asked, I was unsure as to how to phrase this, it was an unusual idea to me and I was unsure whether Tito would have heard of anything like it. But from his shocked and horrified look he had.

"Yuri-sama! That's a crime!" obviously he had, and seemed that most in this place had, well that was good, I think…

"…if you say that… then it's possible, isn't it?!" I couldn't believe this, it went against everything I'd ever known, well these whole two days had, but this was just terrible. Tito stood to face me, still holding the bed sheet, he seemed to be thinking about what to say about the subject, unsure as to whether he should trust me or not.

"Yes, it seems that the powerful priests can do it. But I've heard that they usually use snakes for cursing people. That's already enough to be a crime. I think that if you sacrifice a human, you'll be able to target virtuous people, and nobility." I covered my mouth with my hand, it was becoming a habit and sat a bit shocked. "Yuri-sama? Is there anything else?"

"Uh, yeah…" I had to ask this, if Tito knew anything it could be useful. "Umm… well… I mean…" I seemed unable to get my words out. "Suppose a powerful priest used that power to bring someone here from very far away…" Hell yeah, VERY far away. "What should that person do to get back home?"

"If that's the case, shouldn't you just ask the same priest again? In general, I've heard that only the person himself can undo a power that's been used." Well, that was just great, lets go ask the megalomaniac Queen that wants to kill me to just send me home nice and peacefully in one piece? That'll work…

* * *

Right, sorry I didn't write the whole of chapter 2 but this is 10,655 words long and took me about 3 whole days to write in total... I'll write the rest but looking at a page that you have to scroll down for 16 pages is a bit daunting :O so I decided to stop at a good point, i.e. in a break before any action actually happens and then write the rest.

review if you like it please, hell review if you don't... but don't be too mean... love you all

xxxxx


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